Cellular telephone billing systems currently accept cellular telephone call detail data on a periodic basis by electronic transmission or on magnetic media from cellular telephone carriers, process the call detail data on the tapes, and typically generate monthly invoices for the user associated with each cellular telephone number. For a customer owning a large number of cellular telephones with associated cellular telephone numbers, a different monthly invoice (in varying formats) is typically generated by a reseller for each of the cellular telephone numbers. Each such monthly bill may be based on different cellular service plans, since a reseller typically offers several different service plans for each cellular telephone system providing service to the same market. As a result, it is extremely difficult to determine for each cellular telephone if a different service plan may be more cost effective than the current service plan.
Previously, billing providers have provided on a periodic basis both consolidated cost and usage information for the cellular telephones owned by a customer, and cost estimates for the eligible cellular service plans for each of its cellular telephones users, in order to efficiently and cost effectively provide billing services for the cellular telephones. For example, A Method of Selecting the Most Cost Effective Cellular Service Plan Provided By Telephone Resellers To Multi-line Customers is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,027,388, filed on Jun. 1, 1990 by Andrea E. Bradshaw, David M. Baum and Dionne A. Rivera and assigned to the assignee of the present invention, the entire patent of which is incorporated by reference. However, the method of U.S. Pat. No. 5,027,388 is based on cost estimates and many result in less accurate information regarding cost effective cellular service plans.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved cellular telephone billing system that provides accurate rate analysis for current and alternative cellular service plans.